Instant wrote:
It might be a good idea to use the spoiler tag for the images next time you do a similar topic, because it takes up a lot of space and you can only start reading the text after all images loaded.

Thx for the hint. I did this for the whole topic now, so it should be much better to read.

yusufcihan wrote:
Also, when your map is finished, can you make Battle tag version of this map?

Yes Yusufcihan, I'm planning to do a Battle-Tag version of Spa-Volt, as well a Stunt-Arena version.
But different to my first plans, I will release them after Spa-Volt 2 is released.

I have been following your diary for quite a while, I was excited to try this out. Nice work, I enjoy racing Spa-Volt a lot! It's challenging and there's a great overall atmosphere and attention to details. Somehow, it reminds me on the classic "Quake!" track by Gabor.

My only negative observation would be regarding the main sound track, I would have maybe expected something closer to the lounge genre, which would have possibly been a better fit here. But it's only a minor point, you've done a great job altogether!

Last edited by Pyves on Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks Pyves, glad you like it It's such a big honor to me, that it reminds you of Quake!, because this is one of my favorite track since the beginning of the 2000s, and it was a big influence for Spa-Volt.

Regarding the soundtrack, it's interesting to hear your opinion, so I want to tell you a little bit more about the process:

I had 5 to 6 songs in the end selection. I had a very detailed idea of the song i wanted. It shouldn't be lounge-like. Yes, at a first look such a song would fit the Spa-theme best. BUT I think it doesn't fit the overall Re-Volt style, and this was also very important for me. Also, it's strange to race with a lounge style track, because it doesn't push you enough, when it has to low bpm (I tried this also). Instead, I wanted a fast song, which has some melancholic/gloomy atmosphere, fitting the rain, wind and darkness. I think it took me 3-4 hours, to decide which song it should be, so I really put some time into this, it was not an overhasty decision.

For Spa-Volt 2, I also have chosen the song already, it's a little bit different.

Hello everyone, today im here to talk about Spa-Volt.
A track which stood out so clearly from recent releases that i could not not make a review on it.
But is this track really an instant classic, as most people claim it is?

Let us dive in.

1. The Concept

The concept of Spa-Volt is pretty self explanatory, the creator was inspired
by a spa he visited, and after pouring copious amounts of hours into it,
the community received the most polished, most detailed, and perhaps
The greatest Re-Volt track in recent memory.

It has everything a Spa inspired track could and should have.
From extensive detail in regards to the architecture, atmosphere and
lighting to game related tie-ins, this map really doesnt feel like a regular
old stock track from the game, it surpasses them far and wide,
putting itself in a whole other class of its own.

2. The Graphics

The Graphics are completely mind blowing, and play a nice compliment
to all the details that are jammed in this map. The track really immerses you
with great visuals so you never lose attention, and always have something
to look at especially when not racing.

The level of detail in this track is something that can not be left without
a mention, because it plays the biggest role in giving it the proper
flavor it deserves. From the Re-Volt themed towels to the custom made
informative posters, this entire map is oozing with originality.

However, these details never get in the way of the actual raceline,
as they should. The raceline stays clean and is always well telegraphed,
giving the player all the information they need, just by using visual cues.

3. The Raceline

The raceline is a perfect example of how a raceline should be done.
The twists and turns never feel overwhelming, and with 2 designated sections
giving the player a breather, its always an enjoyable experience.

But while in broad strokes the raceline is near-perfect, there are a couple of
issues that need to be pointed out. Sometimes a track-maker should sacrifice
flavor for a more leanient design. For example, the stairways used to connect the floors
dont give the player enough space to completely dodge an oil, or just move freely.
Quake is a track which is a perfect demonstration of how you can give up a small amount
of realism to make for a smoother and more enjoyable raceline.
All in all, that section would feel a lot better if it was just a ramp instead
of the awkward divide between the ramp and stairs.

Another small problem is right at the last turn, where you can easily run your
car into an obstacle just by taking a regular line. The combination of the
benches, the laundry, and the caution sign make for a very crowded area that
after a while just becomes a chore to drive through.

The last issue is the small stone road at the end of the outside section.
It not only has uneven terrain, but a surprisingly slippery surface, which makes
an otherwise insignificant part overly complicated for its purpose.

However, none of these issues ruin the track flow.

This track truly is in a league of its own, and its depth and level of design
are the golden standards when making a track.
I give it a rating of 4.75 out of 5.

After some weeks of a break after releasing Spa-Volt 1, I finally continued working on Spa-Volt 2 this weekend.

I want to show you some pics of the current status, as well as a concept of the raceline, including a raceline video (First ingame-footage of Spa-Volt 2). Please keep in mind, that the track is "Work in Progress", so there are some empty areas, and a lot of missing parts, or parts where you can see all sorts of errors (missing textures, missing modelling,...).

As always, I hope you can give me some comments, which are very precious for me.

This looks amazing so far, well done! The very beginning of the track vaguely reminds me of Holiday Camp, which is probably one of my favourite tracks. I like the sunset atmosphere, it's quite uncommon in tracks. I can't think of any improvement suggestions, but I'll let you know if something comes to mind.

Thanks for the Christmas present Kiwi! This track is another great piece of work! I like the fast raceline and the AI is quite challenging.

Minor issue: whilst looking for the ducks in practice mode (already 7 found so far!), I ended up falling into the void quite a few times when trying to reach the one above those hose fountains near the start of the track.

Last edited by Pyves on Tue Dec 25, 2018 12:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Thanks for reporting this issue, Pyves. At Discord I already got some other minor bug reports. I collect them all at the moment, and will release a bug-fix-update soon. (No matter how many people will beta-test, there will be always some small bugs left, hehe...)

Good to know. Another observation is the beginning of the changing room section, which is too dark in my opinion. Maybe put a flickering light bulb in there? That would fit well with the post-storm theme. ^^

At a beta-release this section was much darker, so this is already a brightened version, hehe. I made it that dark on purpose, because I think it adds some variety, and it's also a very short section. And at the rear part of the section, there is already a flickering light. But if enough people complain, I will think once more about brighten it a little bit more.

Thank you Huki. The reason I didn‘t added loadlevel images, is the 15MB filesize-limit of RVZ. That‘s also the reason why I had to reduced the quality of the music and sound effects quite a lot. Also the textures are only 512x512. I know I could provide a higher quality version somewhere else, but I don‘t like to have different versions of the track floating around, and RVZ is de-facto standard for custom Re-Volt content, so I decided to keep the track under 15MB. I really hope there will be a RVZ replacement sometime in the near future, so we all don‘t have to work around this limitation anymore.

Thank you Huki. The reason I didn‘t added loadlevel images, is the 15MB filesize-limit of RVZ. That‘s also the reason why I had to reduced the quality of the music and sound effects quite a lot. Also the textures are only 512x512. I know I could provide a higher quality version sonewhere else, but I don‘t like to have different versions of the track floating arond, and RVZ is de-facto standard for custom Re-Volt content, so I decided to keep the teack under 15MB. I really hope there will be a RVZ replacement sometime in the near future, so we all don‘t have to work around this limitation anymore.

I plan to release a final update for Spa-Volt 1 (The rainy one) soon. The track is in the I/O package for more then 4 months now, so it was raced quite often during online races since September. I have collected some things which needs adjustment - see list below.

If anybody have found any other bugs, please report them to me.

Until now I have collected the following:

General:
+ Make stone surface at park area less slippery (between technic room and outside swimming pool). It feels unnatural slippery at the moment.

Normal version:
+ Bad repo at stairs down to the technic room. Repo is exactly above the stairs, which cause issues.

Reverse version:
+ Bad repo after first U-turn, when resetting position underneath the hanging bikini. Repo is behind the door.
+ Sometimes a X appears after leaving the clothing room, when driving up to the restauraunt area.
+ Adjust position of benches right before the finish line. (Very annoying obstacles at the moment)

We discovered a bug in properties.txt parsing that affects boolean values. Setting a key to false currently has no effect (i.e., if the default material / spark has that property enabled, it continues to be enabled). It's fixed now and I didn't notice any apparent changes when racing Spa-Volt tracks, but I suggest you to wait for the upcoming RVGL release and double-check your surfaces / particles before the "final update".

Thanks for this hint. I use boolean values with different settings at some of my custom surfaces / custom sparks, and I am pretty sure I had no issues with it. But I will double-check it before releasing the final update.

Too bad that I don't follow the forum and I didn't follow this thread so maybe some changes wouldn't happen.

Before the update I considered this track one of my favourites. Well made, with alternative (but relatively well balanced) alternative paths, with a high level of difficulty on many corners requiring proper knowledge of the track and thinking ahead (combining one turn with the next one etc.).

But the changes made in 1.2 version I rather consider to be a DOWNgrade, not an update/upgraded version of the track. Here are my thoughts and experiences with the track and it's changes:

1. The pools of water were made less slippery. That's a good change, as before it felt like driving on ice. Now it is actually possible to move left or right when being in them.

2. The start line has been moved so that players don't have to turn immediately after the start. This is a good change as well, less mayhem at the start, that's how it should be made.

3. I think that some sunbeds were slightly moved away from the racing line (although I am not 100% sure). This is a good thing, it allows to approach the grass cut in a way that it is possible to make it more consistently.

]

4. Heavier rain effect in my opinion is slightly too heavy. I know it is supposed to represent a real storm and not just a regular rainy day, but the amount of rain is just blocking the sight of view. Also this much of rain would've made bigger water pools. So on one side the immersion is bigger, but on the other is smaller.

5. The pile of clothes has been moved away from the exit from the changing room (& entry into the locker room at the same time). Although it changes the path, I consider this to be a good thing as it allows for more consistent and easier laps (especially for weaker players as it was possible before to always do this part right but one had to know how). This will result in slightly faster lap times., but it's OK.

6. The worst thing about the "update": removal of the bench. Not only it makes it much much easier to make the whole turn (now you can just press forward and left and the car does all the job), it alters the racing line, but also the 2 out of 3 alternative paths (the "boxy" one and the "WC" one) were made completely obsolete because of this change. Now the "hoover" path is very easy to make and much faster than the other 2 paths. Before the change the player had to maneuver around the bench if going for the "hoover" path and then maneuver inside that path OR regulate the throttle and fit the car in front of the bench if going for the "box" or "WC" paths. I consider this change to be a major path changer, and a path changer for worse. Removing the bench was in my opinion a very big mistake that made the track unbalanced (paths-wise), the turn is now very easy and that turn is quite empty now.

Before the patch I considered this track to be a well-made difficult and demanding track, now the difficulty is at most "mediocre" along with useless alternative paths and very heavy rain dropping on my face. The rain could be slightly lighter and the bench should come back where it was.

► Show Spoiler

Off Topic

I guess that's what happens if a trackmaker allows for some anonymous Sunday players crying "too difficult, too complex, pls make it easier" to influence him and his track even after the release. Also no wonder why the IO packs are also so full of trashy tracks… eh

Regarding point No. 4, the rain: Yes, as you already mentioned, I made it that heavy, because it fits better to the heavy storm. I know the puddles are maybe too small now, but here I have made a compromise. I like it the way it is now, and I will keep it this way.

Regarding the remove off the bench, point No. 6: Maybe this is a downgrade for hardcore-timetrial-drivers and pro-drivers like you, but for most of the people this change is a positive thing, I think. Also I don't think, that the two other paths are obsolete now. I still choose the path through the shower-area not very often, because it also need some training to get around Mr. Cleany without crashing. And for me it's also more fun to drive the toilet-path. Also, you only can get pickups if you drive the box- or toilet-path. I like the new version even more than before, and I think also most of the "sunday" drivers (as you call them) are fine with it. I can't make it fine for everyone. Spa-Volt 1 is exactly in the way, I want it to be. Sure, I made it easier because a lot of players cried about the difficulty, but it's still not an easy drive, and it's a little bit more balanced for everyone now. So your comment inside the "Spoiler" is not true, at least speaking of Spa-Volt 1.

Do you have any thoughts about the R-version? What do you think about the changes there?